With the long-awaited confirmations of Jimmie Johnson as full-time driver for Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 48 Honda and David Malukas in the Dale Coyne Racing / HMD Motorsports No. 18 Honda, we’re only inches away from crossing the finish line from The Silly Season of The Silly Season of IndyCar.
AJ Foyt Racing has signed their two main drivers, Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton Kellett. Andretti Autosport has its four with Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean and Devlin DeFrancesco. Arrow McLaren SP is affiliated with Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. Chip Ganassi Racing plays with Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson and Johnson. Dale Coyne goes well with Takuma Sato and Malukas. Juncos Hollinger Racing is the only full-time single car with Callum Ilott. Meyer Shank Racing has doubled in size with Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is a new threesome with Graham Rahal, Jack Harvey and Christian Lundgaard. And Team Penske is a more compact version of itself with the trio of Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin.
All in all, that’s 23 registrations for the whole season, not including Ed Carpenter Racing, the only team that still has big jobs to do in the paddock. ECR is moving its # 20 Chevy up to pole position, whatever remains of the silly season with the vacancy on the road and on the road circuit; Carpenter recently told RACER that he hopes that decision will be made in the coming weeks. Once that decision is made, the silly season will come to an end and we will start thinking about who is going where in 2023.
That means the race is on for the best driver for the job, who can bring in roughly $ 2.5 million or more to land alongside Rinus VeeKay. Jack Aitken recently tested with the team following Ryan Hunter-Reay’s test, and if either of the two had the sponsorship in hand to deliver ECR, I’d assume a deal would have been announced. I wonder if Conor Daly might stay in the car with a new group of supporters in tow.
With VeeKay and Carpenter + Driver X, the full-time field reaches 25. Despite optimism that it will grow closer to 30, it looks like fields with 26 or more cars will be reserved for the events where part-time Starting places are available appear. Ricardo Juncos says the likelihood of fielding a second car alongside Ilott has decreased as the Indy 500 is the only race in which JHR could potentially field two cars.
The Foyt team seemed like the best bet to add a third car for 2022 with the help of ROKIT, but I haven’t heard anything lately to suggest things are going on. We know AMSP won’t be using its third entry for more than a part-time program, but it was good to hear that Stoffel Vandoorne impressed the team on their most recent test at Sebring.
Rossi doesn’t play a role in the current silly season, but he could play a major role in the next. Michael Levitt / Motorsport Pictures
And so, with the mystery and intrigues of the goofy IndyCar season, we begin to turn our attention to the next off-season.
Will Johnson return for a second full season in the No. 48 Honda in 2023? I don’t have an answer for you right now, but I can say that a few smart people on the show suggested that Rossi go there once his Andretti contract is completed. Could CGR have other entries that need a new driver? We know that AMSP will have its third seat to fill; Could there be more as Felix Rosenqvist goes into the final year of his contract and puts O’Ward Jockeys on a McLaren F1 opportunity?
MSR co-owner Mike Shank told me they could go to three cars, so would he need a new driver or two if four-time Indy 500 winner Castroneves returns to an all-Indy role? Will Penske have one or more cars that need new drivers, and despite the huge drain on resources with their new Porsche LMDh effort, would the team consider going back to four entries if the right driver were available?
Yes, it’s still 2021 and we’re already talking about 2023 because that’s where most of the private conversations have been focused. If Grosjean leaving Coyne for Andretti is seen as the big move for 2022, just wait and see what comes in less than 12 months.
